


Thats the Thing About Tricksters

by Kaiel



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kitsune, Nogitsune, Nogitsune Stiles, Trickster - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 09:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2223666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiel/pseuds/Kaiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thing about Tricksters is that they rarely are surprised. They hold all the cards from the beginning and its a trick deck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly just my rambling response and thoughts on the ending of season 3, Trickster myths are a particular interest for me and theres no way that a 1000 year old nogitsune wouldn't have seen that coming. I have thoughts on what the nogitsune might have done next, but I haven't ever really written much fan fiction so I have no idea how this will turn out.

The thing about Tricksters is that they rarely are surprised. They hold all the cards from the beginning and its a trick deck. What makes a Trickster so dangerous, is that they know how to bide their time, waiting, watching, but most of all mimicking. Tricksters are masters of illusion after all, and the fallout of a victory can cause just as much chaos as the battle. 

So if Stiles walked a little bit more gracefully, and his words were just a touch more biting, well who would blame him after what he went through? Because a fox, even a Trickster, is at its heart; a predator, and a predator know the value of patience.


	2. The Chaos of Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a gentle reminder, this is my first chaptered fan fiction, and criticism is welcome, especially critique on characterization, honestly.

The truth was, the Nogitsune had never left Stiles, when they supposedly split? Well that was the contingency plan, It had been defeated by a wolf once before, and if the little children thought he would be beaten so easily, well it was laughable really. But it stayed below the surface, letting them think they had won, letting Stile walk in his own skin for a time, the next move would sustain him for a while at least. Because a death? It causes strife, and pain, the right death can even cause chaos, but a resurrection? Well the panic alone is a meal worth the trouble. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Stiles had a faint itching at the back of his skull, he couldn't quite verbalize what it was exactly, almost like a vague sense of unease, like he had left the stove on or something. He had learned not to talk about it and as far as he could tell it was only leftover from when he, Scott and Allison were trying to find the Nematon, Anything with Allison really was kind of a sore topic around everyone. He knew they didn't blame him, but it didn't stop him from blaming himself, for her death and for Aiden's. So when he woke up in the middle of the forest in his pyjamas with out a clue as to how he got there, it was just to reminiscent of the Nogitsune. He panicked.

"Scott, I think I might have a problem." He shot into the Phone the second it connected.

"Stiles what is it, its three in the morning."

"I just woke up next to the Nematon." The silence that followed his statement was painful, he didn't have to see him to know that Scott was very quickly throwing on shoes and hopefully a shirt.

"Stay where you are, I'm coming to get you; you don't, are you feeling yourself?" Stiles could hear Scott rummaging around in the background, presumably through his moms purse for the keys.

"Not like anything I say would be true if I wasn't me, but I think I'm me, I don't feel like not me." Stiles was rambling, he knew it, he was kind of freaking out, he didn't have any memory of a riddle plagued nightmare involving the nogitsune, but that didn't mean anything.

"Just stay put, I'll be there in fifteen minutes ok?" Stiles heard a car door slam.

"Yeah ok." The woods were deathly still after Scott hung up, and Stiles felt himself pulled towards the Nematon. "I am not going anywhere near the Nematon" He said out loud, perhaps as a reassurance to himself, or to snap himself out of the draw he couldn't tell. He took a step towards it. "Ok, Im just going to check it out, to prove to myself that there is no evil fox related reason I am here." That sounded good, that almost sounded plausible. He was nearly at the cellar entrance now. The doors creaked with rust, and Stiles stared down into the dark hole before scrabbling for his phone and opening the flashlight app. "Oh crap."

He scrambled back falling and pushing himself away, this had to be some kind of trick, there was no possible way he had seen what he had. That was how Scott found him, Stiles well on his was to a proper panic attack from the horrible reminder of what the Nogitsune had done while wearing his face and unable to bring himself to look in the cellar again. 

"Stiles! Stiles are you ok? Can you hear me?" Scott was shaking him.

"L-look in the cellar, tell me I'm not crazy." 

"Call your Dad." Scott said voice only just barely even. "They're still alive."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The ten bodies they had found were none other then Allison, Adien and eight of the Hospital workers that had been killed when the Nogitsune had been rampaging. The entire area was buzzing with cops and paramedics, the confusion and chaos from ten dead people suddenly being found alive was mind numbing. It wasn't until Stiles mention just how crazy it all was to Scott, as the two sat in one of the squad cars, bright orange shock blankets on their shoulders that Scott got the bright idea to call the only Nogitsune expert they knew of. 

"Alive?" Kiera sounded breathless. "I'd better wake up my Mom. I'll call you back." She disconnected and Stiles turned to Scott.

"Did you call Mr. Argent yet? About, Allison?"

"Yeah When the paramedics were checking you over and giving you that ridiculous blanket." The ghost of a smile graces Stiles face.

"How'd he take it?"

"I think he's at the hospital now. I-" The phone began blaring out Bad Moon Rising and Stiles really did smile now.

"Hey Scott?" Kiera was fast, Stiles approved.

"Yeah, your on speaker with me and Stiles, what did your mom say?"

"She says this is likely some part of the Nogitsune's plan that it didn't get to complete. Its not common but there are legends of Nogitsune's not killing people in favour of using their lives as chaos energy. Basically while a death causes pain and strife real chaos is-"

"Caused when someone comes back to life." Stiles cut off. Scott gave him a strange look.

"Yeah exactly, they should be okay, there may be some remnants of whatever the Nogitsune did to keep them unconscious, but other then that-" She trailed off.

"Thanks Kiera, I'll see you tomorrow?" Scott had a truly amazing ability to sound exactly like a puppy dog.

"Of course Scott!" she managed to send a smile through only her voice, Stiles was mildly impressed. "My mom also wants to talk to you Stiles, it might be best if you came by tomorrow after school."

"Ok, Goodnight Kiera." 

"Goodnight." Scott put his phone away.

"How do you think it did it? brought everyone back?" 

"It was a Trickster, they're masters of illusion right? I don't think they were every really dead." Stiles had a strange sort of manic energy, like how he felt if he had neglected to take his adderal and then chugged a red bull. He tried to pretend he was ok.

"Its gone Stiles, and whats more, no one is dead! So even better!"Scott threw an arm around Stiles.

"Yeah." Stiles tried to throw some cheer in his voice, but he couldn't help but think, Aiden had died after the Nogitsune, hadn't he?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Readers! This chapter feels kinda awkward to me but oh well, I love Lydia, but she is always so hard for me to write. Anyway, with this we start to see the emergence of a hint of plot! yay! so I should have a new chapter up in the next two weeks or so, so enjoy!

It took Stiles a long time to fall asleep when he finally did get home, not because he wasn't tired, but he was afraid of what might happen when he finally closed his eyes. As it turned out his fear wasn't entirely unfounded, the Nogitsune featured prominently in his dreams and nightmares, how could it not? So it wasn't exactly a shock to see his own double standing in front of him head tilted to the side a predatory smile on his face.

"Hello Stiles, its been a while." It was his voice but it always sounded so creepy in his dreams.

"Not really, you were in last nights nightmare too." Stiles responded, he closed his eyes and tried to will the dream to nicer things, surely he could do that? It was his dream after all. The Nogitusne laughed.

"Two bodies have I, though both joined in one, the more I stand still the faster I run. What am I Stiles?" The smile on its face grew wider.

"Nope, you're not real, you're dead and I don't want to deal with this crap anymore." Maybe if he was just really firm with his dream it would go away, this one wasn't like the usual nightmare anyway. Usually, it involved more flashbacks and taunting, this one seemed far to relaxed.

"Did you like my last Trick Stiles? Did you feel all that Chaos?" Stiles felt cold, when he had been possessed he had felt what the Nogitsune felt, and that strange energy he had been filled with only hours before, was not dissimilar. "Oh Stiles don't be afraid, Chaos doesn't have to be a bad thing." It was taunting now, at least this was more familiar.

"You're dead, gone out of the picture, Scott killed you, so get out of my head!" 

"Two bodies have I, though both joined in one, the more I stand still the faster I run. What am I Stiles?" It began to move towards him.

"I don't know!"

"What are we Stiles?" He bolted awake to the sound of his alarm, the nightmares words still ringing in his ears.

 

~

 

"Stiles? Are you Ok?" He had to shake himself before he could get his eyes to focus on the strawberry blonde in front of him. 

"Yeah I, last night was weird though." He gave her a half smile, it wasn't that anything was wrong he was just shaken, right? Lydia nodded, there really wasn't an appropriate response to a half dozen people coming back to life. "Hey are you any good at riddles?" She gave him a strange look.

"Depends, why?" She pushed her book to the side to lean in slightly. The library was unsurprisingly empty, and the chemistry homework wasn't due for another few days, it could wait, or rather, it could be blatantly pushed to the side until the night before it was due.

"Theres just this riddle I heard and I can't figure it out, its been bugging me." He must have heard it somewhere, and since his subconscious associated riddles with the Nogitsune, it only made sense for it to show up in his nightmares. Aside from the niggling feeling that the answer was important somehow.

"Well whats the riddle?" Stiles smiled, of course Lydia would like riddles, she was smart and had the patience to try and figure them out.

"Two bodies have I, though both joined in one, the more I stand still the faster I run; what am I?" She bit her lip.

"Give me till the end of school, I can defiantly figure this one out." The two went back to studying after that. School passed in something of a blur, like the sort of pleasant blur when everything is going right. The whole school was a buzz about what had happened last night, and Stiles found that he was feeling more full of energy by the time last period ended. The teacher had had to stop the class and try to explain what had happened in order to attempt to stop speculation and rumours, which were of course distracting everyone from the lessons.

Scott was something of a zombie from being up half the night and Stiles would have felt bad for feeling as good as he did if not for all the nights Scott had done the same thing to him since he'd been bitten. It also helped the lack of guilt that Scott was still on cloud nine over Allison's lack of death. 

"An Hourglass!" The triumphant sound so soon after the final bell had rung through Stiles for a moment.

"What?"

"Two bodies have I, though both joined in one, the more I stand still the faster I run. It's an hourglass." She beamed at him and Stiles smack his forehead.

"Of course! I should have known that thanks Lyds!" He kept his tone cheerful, his whole outlook today had been better, it was like he had eaten a really satisfying meal, but the answer to the riddle filled him with a deep sense of dread, nothing he could explain, but very much so there.


End file.
